And so ends the blue era, as well
as the Umbro era. And we know that if Umbro still held the contract, then
the new away shirt would have been a gorgeous return to its roots, a
decent celebration of the 150 years of the FA, for it was going to be
royal blue affair. A return to the glorious thirties, when England
had the fear of nations the world over.

If we had entered
the 1938 World Cup Finals - we would have won it. But the Football
Association deemed us too important for that, and so it came to be.
We won the cup in '66 in red, so it's red we shall play in.

It's a
shame really, because the shirt is smart, it is in the traditional sense
of the word, a uniform.

It also rewrote history, because never
before has the national team released two new shirts in the same period.
Only seven days after its white equivalent.

Against Ukraine,
England wore the MY GAME IS FAIR PLAY FIFA logo on the left arm and the
2014 FIFA WORLD CUP BRAZIL QUALIFIERS logo on the right arm.

The Under-21 team
wore red shorts with this kit against Israel in the Euro 2013
Championship in Jerusalem on 11 June.